Visakhapatnam, Jan 28 Left-arm pacer Arshdeep Singh has been drafted into the playing eleven as India won the toss and elected to bowl first against New Zealand in the fourth T20I at the ACA-VDCA Stadium on Wednesday.
India already have an unassailable 3-0 lead in the five-game series and will now push towards a clean sweep over New Zealand. After winning the toss, India skipper Suryakumar Yadav said Arshdeep comes in for wicketkeeper-batter Ishan Kishan, who has picked a niggle.
He also said vice-captain Axar Patel will need more time to recover from a left index finger injury suffered in the T20I series opener in Nagpur and could come back in the next game in Thiruvananthapuram on Saturday.
“It looks like a good wicket, and we’ll get a chance to practise here later. There was a lot of dew last night and today it’s a little humid as well, so we feel that in the second innings the ball will come onto the bat nicely.
“I think the important thing is to repeat the good habits we’ve built over the past year, not just in this series. We want to keep doing the good things we’ve been doing, learn from the last game, and go out there, enjoy ourselves, play the format the way it’s meant to be played, and entertain the people who’ve come here.
“It’s a beautiful ground and a lovely crowd here. Hopefully the boys are charged up and we have a good, entertaining night. The batters will need to take a bit more responsibility (in Kishan’s absence), but at the same time not shy away from playing with fearless intent. We’ve got five good bowling options today, so we’ll see how it goes,” he said.
New Zealand captain Mitchell Santer said pacer Zak Foulkes replaces Kyle Jamieson in the playing eleven, with James Neesham and Finn Allen still a little far off from being in the team.
“It looks like a good wicket again. The dew has already kind of set in, so it might be a bit harder later on. The runs and scores are definitely evolving. We know the quality of this Indian side, and we’ve seen that in the first three games.
“We need to be better with the ball. First up, though, it looks like a good wicket, so we’ll try to set a strong total tonight. Most of the guys are already here playing this series, but the roles are pretty clear, and we’ll probably get similar wickets in the World Cup,” he said.
Playing XIs:
India: Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson (wicket-keeper), Suryakumar Yadav (captain), Rinku Singh, Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, Harshit Rana, Ravi Bishnoi, Kuldeep Yadav, Arshdeep Singh, and Jasprit Bumrah
New Zealand: Tim Seifert (wicket-keeper), Devon Conway, Rachin Ravindra, Glenn Phillips, Mark Chapman, Daryl Mitchell, Mitchell Santner (captain), Zakary Foulkes, Matt Henry, Ish Sodhi, and Jacob Duffy
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